MOUNTAIN WEST HEIGHT MEANS ELEVATION, NOT JUST PLAYER SIZE

To construct a basketball program from sea level in the Mountain West a coach needs more than the building blocks of talent. He or she needs to put up some mental scaffolding, because the coast dwellers often find themselves stuck between a Rocky and a hard breath.

There is only one sea level university in the conference and that’s San Diego State. Opponents will see no signs in the visiting locker room at Viejas Arena reading: “Welcome to sea level.”

When New Mexico visits the Aztecs tonight in a crucial league game at Viejas, you’d like to believe State will be at a huge advantage, what with The Show and all, making it the greatest home court/field advantage any San Diego sports team has enjoyed. But that’s not necessarily the case.

Not only are the Lobos good — like the Aztecs, they’re 20-4, tied for the conference lead, and now have won five straight, their slimmest margin of victory 10 points — but researchers tell us athletes living and training at altitude who travel to lower levels retain a high content of red blood cells for up to two weeks, and those little things can carry more oxygen. There’s a reason long distance runners such as Meb Keflezighi train at Mammoth, and it’s not just for the scenery.

There’s no fix, other than to get out of the mountainous conference, and that’s what SDSU soon will be doing. Until then, it’s up and down. Remember, it’s not only the altitude, but the travel. Some of these places are more easily accessible by Conestoga.

Aztecs men’s coach Steve Fisher and women’s coach Beth Burns both ran programs in the Big Ten, where the road is tough. But they’ll stack up the Mountain West against any conference.

“No question,” Fisher said. “I haven’t seen a recent study, but I know three years ago the Mountain West was second only to the Big Ten when it came to difficulty winning games on the road. You talk about altitude, but it can be an adventure just getting to the buildings.”

Of course BYU and Utah, two tough basketball places, have left the Mountain West. “Big difference,” Fisher admitted. But this remains a good basketball league. Only one school, Boise State, is below .500. Three teams — SDSU, UNLV and New Mexico — have won 20 and Wyoming and Colorado State are 18-6 and 15-8, respectively.

“For the longest time, we never mentioned altitude,” Fisher said. “Kawhi (Leonard) always had problems with it; he’d get sick. When we went to Wyoming this year we were going to substitute a little bit quicker, especially early. From history I know you quickly become exhausted and you’re usually better your second stint in the game.”

One of State’s problems is that it has but nine scholarship players, with seven seeing the great majority of duty, while UNLV and New Mexico go at least 10 deep. Fisher noted the Lobos have 10 players averaging more than 10 minutes a game. So, when in the clouds, Fisher has to watch it more closely, and leans on assistants Brian Dutcher and Mark Fisher to keep an eye out for exhaustion.

“Depth should be an advantage,” Fisher said. “We’ve somehow gotten by with a shorter bench. We try to strategically substitute. Like we’ll take (guard) Chase Tapley out before a TV timeout. It’s possible that, while he may miss a minute of action, he’ll get five minutes rest. We have to be observant. I’ve got help, but it’s something else to think about, yeah.”

The win at Wyoming after a 20-hour ordeal to get to Laramie was one of the more remarkable victories of the Fisher era. But it caught up with the players after coming home, then traveling to Colorado State a few days later and getting trounced.

“Given how we’ve struggled at Wyoming, maybe that kind of thing should happen more often,” Fisher said, laughing. “I don’t want to make excuses, because Colorado State beat us bloody, but there’s no question we felt it (the Wyoming experience) physically or mentally or both.

“I don’t want us to be in our best shape in October. At this point, I’m very conscious of not wearing them out and leaving our legs on the practice floor.”

Fresh example: I talked to Burns, whose 18-5 women’s team leads the conference, Tuesday afternoon shortly before her team was to board a flight to New Mexico. Problem.

“They say a snowstorm’s on its way to Albuquerque,” she said. “We’re hustling to get there. For some of these schools, it’s a bus trip. For us, it’s an adventure, and it really cuts into our practice time. It’s a grind. It’s hard to rest.

“I talk about altitude, but it is what it is. There’s not going to be an asterisk if you win and there won’t be one if you lose. You have to play so different, four minutes at a time, but I refuse to change our style of play. Nationally, people have no clue what it’s like to play at altitude.”